Los Angeles is at a crossroads on homelessness

A homeless person sleeps in a tent on the sidewalk

Oct. 23, 2024 6:30 AM PT

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

Mayor Karen Bass finds herself at a crossroads on one of her most ambitious promises — solving homelessness in Los Angeles.
Dodgers star Fernando Valenzuela, who vastly expanded MLB’s Latino fanbase, dies at 63.
A charming petrol museum is among the 13 reasons why Buellton is worth a stop.
And here’s today’s e-newspaper:

A $22-billion question: What to do about homelessness in Los Angeles?

Mayor Karen Bass finds herself at a crossroads on one of the most ambitious promises she made as she rode into City Hall in 2022 — solving homelessness in Los Angeles. A report released this month by the city’s housing department estimated it would cost $21.7 billion to end homelessness in a decade.

Bass has been publicly tight-lipped about what she thinks of the report, which calls for massive investments in housing for the homeless.

But the mayor has three options before her, my colleagues Liam Dillon and Doug Smith report:

She could try to win over voters and other elected officials to help come up with the money, find an alternative plan that doesn’t carry such a hefty price tag or just continue down the current path and hope the housing crisis improves.

As Bass decides which path to take, a debate has already erupted among housing and homelessness experts over the feasibility of the city report and how to better serve the estimated 45,000 people who are homeless in L.A. Here’s a look at some of their arguments.

A woman carrying possessions walks past tents interspersed with palm trees lining a city sidewalk.

The price tag is a realistic accounting of past mistakes, supporters argue

Some experts say the report’s price tag reflects the reality of overcoming decades of budget cuts and inadequate funding for low-income housing and social services, my colleagues Liam and Doug report.

“In some ways, it’s an eye-popping dollar amount,” Margot Kushel, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and director of the school’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, told Liam and Doug. “In other ways, it doesn’t seem that eye-popping to me for the scale of the problem.”

The city report calls for building or subsidizing nearly 60,000 units of housing for the homeless, which includes new supportive housing developments, rental assistance programs,and facilities for the elderly and severely mentally ill.

Kushel told The Times that the stakes for finding a solution to homelessness are particularly high. She worries that if more housing isn’t secured, the homeless will be criminalized for sleeping on streets after the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that cities can enforce restrictions on homeless encampments.

“I would rather live in a place that spent its money on allowing people to live in community with choice and autonomy over their lives,” Kushel said. “We seem to have an unending appetite to spend money on carceral settings.”

The report is a ‘nonstarter in terms of reality,’ critics say

Other experts said the report shows what’s not working with the city’s current strategies.

“All this stuff in this report is predicated on these status quo mechanisms that are just very inefficient and costly and slow,” Jason Ward, an economist and co-director of the Rand Center on Housing and Homelessness, told Liam and Doug.

To build the housing outlined in the report, state and federal governments would need to significantly step up their support, which is not a sure thing.

The city should instead focus on rental assistance programs, Dennis Culhane, a professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania who has researched homelessness in L.A., told Liam and Doug. These programs are less expensive and lessen the administrative costs and burden.

“There is a public appetite for effective solutions that can show real progress,” Culhane said. “That means it has to be done more quickly than happens under a new construction situation.”

But one of the biggest problems with the report is what it doesn’t include: how the most significant predictor of homelessness is the overall cost and availability of rental housing.

By ignoring the housing market, the report missed an opportunity to discuss crucial ways to stem the flow of people falling into homelessness, Ward said.

Today’s top stories

A photo of Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez in prison.

A decision on the Menendez brothers is expected by the end of the week

L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón announced that he would soon make a decision on the possible resentencing of the Menendez brothers, who were convicted of killing their parents in 1989.
The reexamination of the case comes amid new evidence supporting the brothers’ claims that they were sexually abused by their father.

An Orange County supervisor accepted more than $550,000 in bribes and has agreed to resign, feds say

Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do will step down and plead guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for directing millions of dollars in COVID-relief funds to a nonprofit connected to his daughter, federal prosecutors said.
Do at one point was a rising and influential figure in Orange County politics, becoming one of Southern California’s most prominent Vietnamese American politicians.

More patients sue Cedars-Sinai over alleged misconduct by a former OB-GYN

Twenty-five more women are suing Dr. Barry J. Brock and the facilities where he worked over allegations of sexual abuse. The new lawsuit follows an earlier one from 35 patients with similar allegations.
Brock has repeatedly denied any misconduct, calling claims in the first lawsuit “flat-out lies.” Cedars-Sinai said this fall that it had terminated Brock’s hospital privileges.

Dodgers star Fernando Valenzuela, who changed MLB by sparking Fernandomania, dies at 63

Fernando Valenzuela, a Mexican-born pitcher, led the Dodgers to a World Series win in 1981 and vastly expanded Major League Baseball’s Latino fan base.
Valenzuela’s “magic” should ensure him a spot in the Hall of Fame, columnist Gustavo Arellano writes.
Valenzuela was the man who connected L.A. to the Dodgers, columnist Bill Plaschke observes.
The Dodgers legend exuded quiet pride, understated dignity and a high baseball IQ, columnist Dylan Hernández writes.

What else is going on

UCLA students and faculty are raising alarms over antisemitic and anti-Palestinian hate amid ongoing protests.
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ children issued a statement supporting their embattled father.
A Los Angeles City Council candidate takes heat for saying “F— the police.”
Dairy industry experts say the H5N1 bird flu entered California after local cows were shipped to another state and then returned.
LeBron and Bronny James made history in the Lakers’ season-opening win.

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Commentary and opinions

Former California Rep. Devin Nunes once sued media companies. Now he’s struggling to run one, columnist Robin Abcarian writes.
Hurricane misinformation is coming at a dangerous time, writes Andra Garner, an associate professor and climate scientist in the department of environmental science at Rowan University in New Jersey.

This morning’s must read

A photo of Lombardo Palacios with his sister Sigry Ortez.

He faced pressure to confess to murder when he was 15. Now a district attorney is fighting for his freedom. Lombardo Palacios confessed to murder following hours of interrogation that employed pressure tactics many experts now say are unreliable. Seventeen years later, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón has asked a court to set Palacios and his co-defendant free.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].

For your downtime

Vintage gasoline pumps and metal and neon oil company signs line an interior wall of a building.

Going out

⛽ Horses, vineyards and a charming petrol museum: Here are 13 reasons why Buellton is worth a stop.
🚗 From picking apples to sipping rum punch at a harvest festival, these six road trips near L.A. provide plenty of options for enjoying the fall.

Staying in

📚 Actor Jenny Slate talks about her book “Lifeform” and how motherhood has curbed her feelings of self-doubt.
📖 “One Tree Hill” star Bethany Joy Lenz comes to terms with her cult past in a memoir now available at bookstores.
🍹 Here’s a recipe for Bamboo Club’s Fall of Romulus cocktail.
✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

A question for you: What’s something that recently made you smile?

Jillian Robertson writes: “Something that made me smile this week was playing in the WeHo Dodgeball Halloween tournament at Pan Pacific Rec Center.

“Our team dressed up as aliens and cheered for each other in made-up alien language, somewhere between Minion language and Teletubby babble. We may not have won the tournament, but we definitely had the most fun.”

Feel free to email us at [email protected], and your response might be included in the newsletter this week.

And finally ... your photo of the day

Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.

A man wearing a clown mask and "Champions" T-shirt sprays champagne.

Today’s great photo is from staff photographer Robert Gauthier. After beating the Mets to reach the World Series, several Dodgers players wore clown masks designed by legendary L.A. artist Mister Cartoon.

“At first I thought I was seeing things, then I was like man that’s crazy,” Cartoon told The Times in an email. “I was watching live with my family and started to get a gang of calls and texts right when it was going down.”

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Defne Karabatur, fellow
Andrew Campa, Sunday reporter
Hunter Clauss, multiplatform editor
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Stephanie Chavez, deputy metro editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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